If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Stem Cell Therapy for SM

When I was looking for anything to help Ella, I came across Stem Cell therapy as maybe something in the future. I am taking Elton to a holistic vet and they offer "Vet-Stem Regenerative Veterinary Medicine"

It says right now it is "[SIZE=2]Currently the fixed protocols are for treating arthritis pain and tendon/ligament injuries. Near future applications will include treatment of internal medicine conditions such as:[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]Heart disease
Liver disease
Kidney disease
Neurologic disease
Immune-mediated disease"

Has anyone heard any more about maybe using this treatment for the future?[/SIZE]

I can't imagine what benefit stem cells could provide. And I say that as someone who is currently working with stem cells in neurologic disease.

I personally feel that the promises of stem cell research are tremendously over-hyped, and that in more cases than not rather than proving helpful they will provide the seeds for cancerous growths (guess what, stem cells and cancerous cells aren't all that different- in fact in scientific literature the differences are mostly just point of view).

There are a few diseases, and avenues where stem cells will provide some major medical breakthroughs. But I expect it will a handful of diseases, not the cure-all that is being promised.

Near future applications will include treatment of internal medicine conditions

Wow, really? Personally, I would be... cautious about vets promoting stem cell treatments, but that's me. Still not entirely proven with a lot of question marks over these procedures, and while there are definitely uses for stem cells the initial 'promise' is known to have been very overhyped. I bet it is really expensive too and a nice little earner. . On SM -- I agree, I can't see how stem cells could possibly change the physiological structures that cause SM -- the skull cannot start to grow and expand to fit an overlarge brain; the brain won't shrink. And it would be pretty darn high risk to inject stem cells into the brain area, just cannot see that as a 'near future' event. I think stating this is in the 'near future' is pretty misleading but maybe someone has some scientific research that says otherwise? I follow a lot of research via science publications and have always understood these possible applications are way, way off in the future still.

I think there's an awful lot of work that needs to be done yet on stem cells before they become therapies. (And doing these kinds of arthritis injections generally costs thousands).

Ok I take some of that back. Have checked and stem cells injected in the spine have been successfully used for spinal injuries in some dogs. But would not think that there's a near future use for such a wide array of things as suggested, and that issue of whether the cells can actually develop into cancer cells is one I have seen raised by researchers. A lot of debate on these treatments still, and the dogs are being done in an experimental way as little is yet known about long term prognosis. Can't see that there would be an SM application though as there isn't anything I would think that could be aided by such cells.